Sunday, October 30, 2011

A Zombie Run

Finished my first audio book, The Great Bridge by David McCullough. I mean the first book I listened to while running. It's about the building of the Brooklyn Bridge in the late 19 th century.

A great book to read if you are into historical non fiction. Did you know john roebling designed the bridge and was going to be the chief engineer, but died from an industrial accident as they were beginning to build the Brooklyn side tower? So, his son took over, but was incapacitated by cassian's disease or what we know as the bends. He lived for a long time after, but he could only continue his job with the aid of his wife, Emily. His wife, during a time when women didn't work in construction or engineering type jobs is credited for much of the work to get the great bridge built.

Anyway, for the past several runs I've been listening to this book. But, tonight was a new book full of zombies and army men. Called We're Alive by KC Wayland. I was so into it i made a wrong turn and added .4 miles onto my run.

My weekly totals have been around 10-12 miles and I'll soon have it up to 15-20 miles. Then I can work on getting a tad faster.

Saturday, October 22, 2011

The Great Bridge

As part of my Pilgrimage this year is my use of audio books. My plan was to download audio books onto my ipod nano from the library. I've listened to a few on my ipad and really enjoyed them. Alas, my ipod won't take library books. It'll only take books from Itunes. My Ipad is too big to take on a run, so I bought a book for my nano. I'm working on getting library books on my wife's Itouch. That I can run with.

So, tonight I ran listening to "The Great Bridge" by David McCullough. It's the history of the building of the Brooklyn Bridge in the late 1800's. If McCullough wrote a book about the invention of vacuum cleaners or headbands, I'd read it. He's that good. Loved "1776" and "John Adams". Really loved "The Greater Journey, Americans in Paris". This book seems to be a good one too.

Plus, it distracts me from the aches of my run. I got in 3 miles tonight and 12 miles in the last 7 days. I'm still not running the entire run, but each time out I run a bit further before I transition into a run/walk to finish the run.

Friday, October 14, 2011

Pilgrimage 51

Today is 24 days before I start my "Pilgrimage 51". A year of eating healthy, running stronger and living life to the fullest.

I'm in my pre pilgrimage stage. No, I won't take this year to the road like a typical pilgrimage. I'll be doing life right here in Arizona. In 24 days I will be celebrating my 50th birthday, but I won't wait to start doing the right things until then. I've already started.

This week I've gotten four runs in. A 3 miler and 3 two milers. Each one has been better than the last. I've also started a "Gorilla Workout" program. It's a free app on my Ipad that is basically calistenics without any weights or tools needed.

This blog will touch on three things for the next year.

1. My running and fitness activities.
2. My food life. Eating better, eating less and eating adventurously.
3. My Adventure leisure side. Whether it's playing softball or vintage base ball or hiking a mountain; I plan to enjoy life.

It's gonna be a great year!